Zusammenfassung (Abstract)
:

The analogies between space and deep sea
motivated the German Helmholtz Association to setup the joint
research program ROBEX (ROBotic Exploration under
eXtreme conditions). The programme objectives are to
identify, develop and verify technological synergies between
the robotic exploration of the Moon and of the deep sea. In
both space and deep sea research orbiters and AUVs/gliders
respectively provide a large set of information on the
environment but landers and mobile robots are essential to
ground truth the data and validate theories. Within ROBEX
the mobility of robots is a vital element for research missions
due to valuable science return potential from different sites as
opposed to static landers. After 2.5 years of project-time three
main mobile systems are prepared for demonstrationmissions,
one wheel-based system for planetary missions, one
wheel based system for extended deep-sea missions and a
caterpillar system for high resolution investigation of small
surface regions in the deep sea. In all cases sufficient onboard
intelligence was needed. The mobile robots should also
be capable of return to a central station for recharging, with
the station equipped with enough battery power to allow
multiple missions. The intelligent seafloor robot &#8220;iCrawler&#8221; is
presented here, which is based on a tele-operated robot, which
has been successfully used within the ONC (Ocean Networks
Canada) cabled observatory project since 2010.